Classicism becomes contemporary, the temple for the goddess of tree fruits becomes a temple of contemporary art: on August 27, 2022, the exhibition of the globally celebrated artist Georg Baselitz will open in Karl Friedrich Schinkel’s Erstlinkswerk. Entitled “Schinkel nach Athen tragen” (Carrying Schinkel to Athens), a reference to the Greek roots of the neoclassical temple planned as a tea room, Georg Baselitz will show nine new works on paper in frames designed by Schinkel in the Pomonatempel. It is a delicate, almost tender summit meeting of the most important German architect of the 19th century and the grand master of painting.

It is, though a small one, the first solo exhibition since his celebrated retrospective at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, which followed shows of his work in the world’s most important museums – from the Hirshhorn in Washington, to the Fondation Beyerle in Basel, to the Gallerie dell’Accademia in Venice. Georg Baselitz has been one of the central figures in the history of painting since the early 1960s. His radical reinvention and upside-down approach to figuration has long since made him an undisputed icon of contemporary art. Sir Norman Rosenthal, the British curator and longtime artistic director of the Royal Academy in London, goes so far as to call Baselitz one of the greatest painters since Picasso.
Baselitz himself will strike calm tones in Potsdam, entering into a dialogue with Prussia’s star architect with his ink drawings. The exhibition is curated by Cornelius Tittel.

Exhibition period and opening hours:
August 28 – October 31, 2022
Thursdays to Sundays and public holidays, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Admission free, donations requested